The Clippers did something tonight they didn’t do last season until December 9 – win a road game.

With 4:00 left in the game, the Clippers trailed 89-85. The final four minutes was in no way an encapsulation of the overall game, but the Clippers scattered the floor defensively, executed on the offensive end and willed their way to a victory against a quality team with a closing 12-2 spurt.

Here’s how it ended:

• The only things working from the field all night are Chris Kaman on the block and Cat Mobley from…anywhere really. The Bulls have Hinrich on Mobley. Mobley is able to get underneath him in the mid-post. Thomas –- who earlier muffed one of the worst entry passes you’ll ever see –- gets it into Cat. Everything has been falling for Cat all night, but here he spins baseline and misses the left-handed turnaround jumper.

Kaman comes up with the rebound and gets fouled. On the inbound, the ball again goes into Cat in the post against Hinrich – this time on the right side. Cat spins into the paint, gets in nicely between Hinrich and the line, puts up a layup. Wallace goal tend.

Chicago 89-87, [3:37]

• The Clippers defend the S/R exceptionally well all night. Everyone from Kaman to Thornton to Knight [who, I’m coming to realize, is a real pro. He’s undersized, but is always where he’s supposed to be]. Here, Hinrich/Smith run it up top. Knight and Thomas run a trap, but Kaman is right there to step out on Smith, who has rolled down toward the left block. With Kaman in his face, Smith fires up a 15 footer which rims short. Chris comes down with the rebound, one of 11 on the night.

• Corey will have some big shots in the closing minutes, but this isn’t one of them. The Clips have the floor spread nicely. The Bulls have stayed at home all night, so the sound thing to do here is find the best one-on-one matchup on the floor, and I’m not sure that Maggette-Deng is it. With Deng smothering him, Maggette takes two dribbles toward the left elblow, elevates, then launches a fadeaway jumper that barely grazes the rim with :12 left on the shot clock. Gordon grabs the loose ball.

• Ben Wallace still sets the nastiest screen in the L. Way, way up top, he pancakes Brevin Knight, leaving Gordon the length of the halfcourt to rev up and drive left toward the hole. Unfortunately for him, his layup is met by Chris Kaman’s claw. Thomas grabs the remains and we go in transition.

Knight delivers a perfect outlet to Maggette, who slams home the break.

Clippers 89, Chicago 89 [2:56]

• Another high S/R with Hinrich/Smith. The Clips recover and Hinrich checks out the weak side. He works a give-n-go with Wallace at the right elbow. Hinrich, in motion, picks up the feed behind Wallace and gets a nice look at a 15-footer. The shot is long and Kaman comes down with it.

• The Clippers are looking for Mobley in the post again. And why not? Knight feeds him off the right block against Hinrich again. This time, the Bulls send Wallace to help on the double-team.

What happens here is beautiful recognition by the Clippers. Deng has had to shift low to cover. The minute Cat sees it, he shoots a bullet across the halfcourt to Thomas on the weak side perimeter. Deng begins to close, but Thomas has the look if he wants it…but Corey’s – up top on the arc – is much, much cleaner. So TT swings it over to Corey, who nails the 3PM.

Clippers 92, Chicago 89 [2:11]

• The Bulls table the S/R coming out of the timeout. Instead, they go into Deng in the post against Corey. With a right-handed dribble, Deng sweeps across the lane, then stops and pops a 10-footer that’s no good. Kaman grabs the rebound.

• The Clippers are running everything through Mobley in the post. A facsimile of the previous set: The instant Mobley sees the double-team, he shoots it to Thomas out on the garden spot. It’s a clean look, but the rock caroms off the rim toward the corner.

What happens next will never be repeated in the course of league history. Thomas sprints toward the baseline, springs himself out-of-play, and -- in a single, fluid motion -- catches up with the ball and scoops it back onto the court. It’s like the baby carriage scene from The Untouchables.

And it happened right in front of Scott Skiles.

The Clips reset. Back into Mobley in the post. He backs Hinrich down, spins baseline, and hits the fallaway 16-footer. Clippers 94, Chicago 89 [1:20]

• Chicago hustles it downcourt. Wallace offers Hinrich a quick high screen. Hinrich rushes toward the hoop, flails up a shot, wants a foul called against TT but doesn’t get it. Utter Chaos. The ball skips out of bounds for the Bulls.

On the inbound, Chicago frees up Gordon with an elbow screen. He gets it in the corner, but can’t get himself free of Knight. He dribbles back up top and fires up a 25-foot 3PA. Way off. Maggette is down on the floor with the rebound. He calls timeout.

From there, the Clippers hit a few FTs; the Bulls hit a couple, but the Clippers maintain control over the final minute.

A couple of notes:

• The Clips open the game by running a stack on the left side with Kaman/Thomas for Maggette. Mobley, who holds the ball up top, can’t time an entry. But the scheme is encouraging and demonstrates that Dunleavy is looking for creative ways to free up Corey in the halfcourt.

• Al Thornton has a nice second quarter. He hits three 3PM, but my favorite is on a clearout at [2nd, 9:04]. And why not? It’s the single, easiest way to get him a shot because 10 times out of 10, he can take Andres Nocioni off the dribble in an isolation. And that’s true of most of the guys who are going to be covering him. If nothing else, an iso for Thornton forces the opponent to send someone from the weak side. So once Thornton hones his instinct for recognizing where a double-team is coming from and learns to make an NBA pass, he’ll be invaluable – whether he’s getting a FGA or not.

Dunleavy takes a lot of heat, but what I’ve seen in the first three games is a coach who has deftly recognized the subtle strengths of his ballclub and is exploiting them to the best of his ability. He’s posting his guards; he’s creating opportunities for his slashers across the middle; he’s trusting his defenders [for the most part], and simplifying the defensive rotation. And the substitutions and matchup selections have been right on.

Posted Wednesday, October 29 at 3:20PM

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Comments

I missed the 1st half due to some insane bay area traffic. Very encouraging to see them take over those last 5 minutes and pull away. With 8:00 to go (or so) in the 3rd, the Bulls announcers made sure to give extensive comments regarding Kaman's old and new 'do and even threw up a side by side graphic with Chris and the Geico caveman. It's played out guys. Really.

Huge win against a good team on the road, and let's face it, any game where this team, this year has a 13-point lead is a game they have to hold on to win and they did tonight, so right on.

Boo Mike Smith for the awkward "they all look the same to me" comment in the 2nd period. I'm sure it wasn't what he meant, but Cat Mobley, Charles Smith, and Loy Vaught are not all big power forwards like he stated, either, so it ended up sounding like an oafish, ignorant, ex-jock thing to say. Dude's got 8 kids and 2 more on the way apparently, so he can't have any kind of functional brain left at this point.

CK!!I'm loving this, we even have Clippers haters blogging, interesting...

Fan we have to give up to our big man, Kaman is pulling his weight. The dude has been playing huge. The team just runs smoother when he is the middle. I agree with the NBA rankings of centers in the league. I also believe that he is in the top 10. Besides Yao, i think that he can take any center one on one with no problem...

Great game; Clips showed poise when they lost the lead and hung tough at the end. Kaman is becoming a monster and Mobley is giving opposing guards fits on the block. We still got the win even without Cassell playing well.

I'm with Jonathan- CK should take that losing attitude to another board.

I'm amazed a team that everyone said is supposed to be the worst in the west and now is 3-0 no one is talking about. They are only saying how amazing indiana is winning without oneal. We beat 2 playoff teams (chicago and golden state) I think this is legit. I imagine how good they are gonna be if they keep this up and add Brand in the mix I got a good feeling about the playoffs

J.C.: Why national media? Look at our own LA TV newscasters. Almost all of them are Laker fans and try to hide Clippers achievements under the rug. There is no professionalism in LA Sports scene when it comes to covering Clippers.

It's good the Clippers are winning, but it's not against teams that are playing their best now. I'm not hating on the clippers, I even think they'll make the playoffs if Brand comes back. We're playing Detroit and Cleveland this weekend, we'll see.

And yeah you can buy a program at the staples center. It's better than my free program, but you gotta pay 10 bucks and it doesn't have an iPhone app to it.

I know this sounds stupid, but in NBA Live 05, Brevin Knight is basically the dude you want starting on your team, becuase he has the best steal/defense rating.... I amd not/wasn't surprised with his defensive performance last night. That dude may not be the greatest shooter, but he knows where to pass the rock, and he knows how to defense his man... I think his pick up was KEY.

As for the 3-0 start, we also have to acknoweldge the fact that the Bulls probably wanted that game as bad, if not more, than the Clips. Sure, its early in the season, and maybe the rotation isn't 100% there for the Bulls, but I think this was a QUALITY win over a very good team. And we did it on the road!

Mike and Ralph said it last night ... even Rick Kamla on NBA TV said it ... this team is deeper and more talented that the "experts" give them credit for. I think they'll split the games this weekend, with the potential to beat either team.

I'm just happy to see the Clips start of well... the last time they were 3-0 out of the gate? Hmmm... was that the 05-06 season?... I like what I seeing...

RotoWire.com Staff - RotoWire.com
Monday, November 5, 2007
Update: Although his minutes may increase depending on the opponent, it is likely Cassell will play mostly in the 20-minute range this season according to Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy, the Orange County Register reports.

Recommendation: He was on the court 22 1/2 minutes in Sunday’s win over Seattle. "I think that was definitely too low for me,'' Cassell said. "I know for a fact that I can play 30 minutes, easily. I worked out hard too hard this summer to play more than 20 minutes. I could have sat on my butt if I knew that I was only going to play 20 minutes.'' Brevin Knight has been splitting time with Cassell at the point so far. Dunleavy cited Cassell’s age (he will 38 in two weeks) as the main factor in reducing his floor time.

In regards to Cassell's comments, I could appreciate his position on the matter, but fans we also have to remember that Cassell is going to be leaving next season. He himself has made comments that he would love to go to Denver to be with Coach Karl. The Clippers have to think about the future of the squad and as fan that holds season tickets i want WINS, and I'm planning to be a Clipper fan for years to come.

I trust that Elgin will do the right thing and get us talent year in, year out. And it's important to keep a good mix of youth and veterans in a team...